Corona in Led Underpants

This year it will not be possible to “wriggle out”.

During the 2010 campaign, there were cases when, after numerous pre-election meetings, people who were somehow connected with power structures in the past, came over to me. They wanted to talk, discuss the situation, speak out. There were “mishandled Cossacks,” but this was interesting, testified to some kind of movement within the system. Unfortunately, the brutal force that the Lukashenka regime used against us frightened the security forces themselves, although it seemed that they better understand the danger of inadequate power, and would be ready to act in the interests of both their own security, and the security of the state.

However, this is not the point.

After one of the meetings, a former employee of the security service of the dictator, or close to the this service, came up to talk. He began to tell horrors about his former master, and his attitude to subordinates. I have never liked such conversations, and do not support them. Uninteresting and useless. The nature and character of dictators is known, and national characteristics change little in them: flawed, cowardly misanthropes, with numerous painful complexes and sadistic inclinations.

Therefore, in order not to offend my interlocutor, I listened, but halfway and waited for him to say something intelligible. He didn’t say anything significant, though he noted that even Lukashenka’s guards are not such faithful dogs as it is widely believed.

I remembered on thing from that conversation. The former employee was with Lukashenka during his first visit to the Chernobyl zone, and claimed that he was very afraid for his health and was even wearing special lead underpants on that trip. My interlocutor was indignant not at the cowards, but at the fact that no special protective equipment was provided for the rest of the retinue, including the guards.

I don’t know if it really was so, but the essence of the dictator’s behavior has always been like this: having protected himself, he easily exposed others to dangers. I remembered how, having barely come to power, Lukashenka began to struggle with the resettlement of people from areas contaminated with Chernobyl radiation, tried to suspend the recovery programs, and he continues this fight until now: he stopped the resettlement, ordered the polluted lands to be put into circulation, deprived Chernobyl liquidators of benefits, deprived the victims of even the “grave” money, because he didn’t have enough for residences, palaces and suites.

Radiation is an invisible killer, and the vile power immediately felt that they could cash in on it. You may not notice that Chernobyl has led to an increase in morbidity and mortality of various forms of cancer, disorders of the thyroid gland, loss of immunity, etc. Moreover, official control over medical statistics makes this possible. But we know for sure that the funds intended to help the victims of Chernobyl went into the pocket of Lukashenka and his retinue.

Nevertheless, even according to the official data, one can get an idea of the disasters that occur with our health. In 2018, for example, Belarus recorded the highest death rate of neoplasms in the past 16 years (18,845 deaths).

We will never know the exact statistics of mortality associated with Chernobyl (such studies, as the experience of Professor Yury Bandazheuski shows, lead to criminal prosecution and imprisonment), but we can claim that this figure is hundreds of thousands of people. Most of these deaths are on the conscience of the current government.

In general, the statistics of the Lukashenka rule are horrific.

The population of Belarus has decreased by 787,300 people since 1994.

In 2018, the mortality rate was twice that of 1950, while the birth rate last year was two times lower than in the middle of the 20th century.

In Minsk, for example, there is now the lowest birth rate in the last 14 years, and mortality is the highest in the last 8 years.

When they say that the Lukashenka regime is anti-people’s, it’s not just a figure of speech, it is a scientific statement of fact.

The regime consistently and purposefully destroys the population of Belarus. At the same time, billions of dollars in hard currency are spent on maintaining the health of the dictator, his “lead underpants”: personal clinics and hospitals, expensive equipment, doctors, medical personnel in all his countless residences.

The coronavirus, like Chernobyl, is convenient for dictatorship in that it allows the destruction of the population to be attributed to external factors. It is also convenient for the dictator in the conditions of Belarus, as the most vulnerable group is the elderly. At the same time, the number and proportion of the able-bodied population from 2010 to 2019 decreased by 370,000 people, and the demographic burden increased from 373 to 433 people per 1,000 people of working age.

Under Lukashenka, the quality of medical care for the elderly, and its availability declined catastrophically. With the so-called “free” medicine, standing of old people in numerous queues in clinics, and the lack of affordable cheap drugs only lead to an increase in their mortality.

The probability of the coronavirus disease and mortality among older people in Belarus is much higher than in all neighboring countries.

This plays to Lukashenka’s hand, therefore, no adequate measures are taken and neither are planned.

The statistics of deaths from this pandemic in Belarus can be horrific, but it will be carefully hidden.

However, billions of dollars will be spent on improving the “lead underpants” of the dictator, which are now being served by hundreds of thousands of people, to protect him from the coronavirus, and most importantly, from the people of Belarus.

In 2010, former and current employees, officials, and security officials were frightened for their own lives, betrayed their friends, even relatives, and were afraid to help people peacefully change their government.

This year it will not be possible to “wriggle out”. And the reason for this is by no means the coronavirus, but the inadequate power that already threatens everyone in Belarus.

I do not think that at least someone in their right mind will “be treated with a tractor” or check Russian oil for a virus. They drink vodka anyway, and many drink too much, especially after 2010.

The instinct of self-preservation, which is very developed in all the regime structures, should nevertheless force both officials and security officers to sober up, and push them to actions on the side of the people, not against the people.

Andrei Sannikov, coordinator of the European Belarus civil campaign, exclusively for Charter97.org

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